"There's a cycle here in Albany, and in every other urban center in the country at this point in time," said Judge Stephen Herrick in Albany County Court. "It makes no sense. You lost a brother. I don't know the circumstances of that, other than I believe it was a needless shooting and your brother's dead. On the night that this happened ... you could have broken the cycle. But you didn't do that. You created another victim."

The families of Reid and Spence traded heated words outside the courtroom after the sentencing, prompting deputies to separate them.

Reid was killed in a parking lot just blocks from the school where he was scheduled to earn a certificate in barbering on May 17.

Spence was arrested in Pembroke, Ky., some 10 miles north of the Tennessee border. He was facing a second-degree murder charge when he pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter.

Spence said he was willing to take his punishment. He said his family has not gotten closure since his brother, identified as Andre Gipson, 22, was fatally shot at Grand and Elm streets on May 12, 2012.

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"What I did (to Reid) was wrong and there's no way around it. And that's it," Spence said. "I will come out better than I came in. I know that for a fact, your honor. I'm not living this life no more. I'm done."